Follow TV Tropes

Following

Advertising by Association

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/frenchmanscreek.jpg
This book is for The Birds

"Despite the explicit marketing tie-in ("From the studio that brought you Shrek"), both [Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron] are traditional hand-drawn cel animation with nothing to connect them to Shrek in look or in spirit."
Steven D. Greydanus, Decent Films

When a creator is maybe not prominent enough to carry a title on their own, but their work is popular and/or widely loved enough to mean something, the promoters of their latest project will highlight their track record to sell this new thing to people. Sometimes it does give the audience some clues as to what they might expect — a signature line, a Creator Cameo, other tropes said creator is known to utilize. Exceedingly common in literature, with the cover frequently advertising something akin to "from the New York Times bestselling author of Insert Book Here." Other common promotions include "by the bestselling author of the book that was made into a successful movie" or even "by the author of the bestselling franchise, of which this book is the next installment".

Can lead to Director Displacement in films and television when the "creator" is a producer — as this name immediately becomes associated with the work, people not bothered to look any further than promotional material will only know them as the creator of it and perpetuate both the displacement and the future of works being promoted by their name as they become more spoken of.

Sometimes may be used as a way to Polish the Turd.

This form of advertising can take many forms:

  • From the writer/director/creator of...
  • From the studio that brought you...
  • From the producer of... - Some people take this as a sign that they had nothing else to sell the audience on than "the guy who said Yes to this film also said Yes to this other film".
  • From the Award Winning creator of... - For when they really want to highlight the creator's prestige.
  • From the maker/s of... - They did something important on that film, had a little involvement with this one.

Compare Billed Above the Title (where the Creator's name is displayed more prominently than the title of the work), He Also Did (for when the work is incredibly out of genre for the Creator, but it isn't necessarily advertised), Product Placement (where products are advertised by their inclusion in a work), In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It (where the Creator's name is part of the title or Tagline) and Preview Piggybacking (where a work advertises an included preview for a much more anticipated work). Contrast Competing Product Potshot.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

Straight Examples:

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • Kull the Conqueror (1971): The comic was originally billed as "From the creator of Conan!" on its covers. Robert E. Howard had been dead for thirty years and had nothing to do with the adaptation of his Kull stories, though.
  • The Ultimates: In-universe, Nick Fury hired Stark for the Ultimates for his incredible Iron Man armor, but also because of his huge popularity, and how some of it could be borrowed by the Ultimates initiative.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 

Authors whose other works are advertised:

Works by an editor/author, but another author is advertised:

    Live-Action TV 

    Music 
  • News articles about I AM I's lead singer, ZP Theart, tend to introduce him as DragonForce's ex-singer.
  • Recent no-man albums tend to include a sticker that says: "no-man are: steven wilson (porcupine tree) and tim bowness". Which is ironic considering that Wilson considers no-man his main project.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Card games published by International Games Inc. and Mattel all have the inset "From the Makers of Uno" on the game's box. While most games are unrelated to Uno, it does help distinguish Similarly Named Works, such as the game DOS (the official sequel to Uno) from DOS!: Twice the fun of UNO (a word and drawing card game).

    Toys 
  • The packaging of the first wave of Hero Factory sets had a label boasting "From the makers of BIONICLE!"
  • The Grossery Gang have labels on the top of their pegs with "From the makers of The Trash Pack!" on them. Before their official release, both The Trash Pack and Shopkins YouTube channels aired crossover promotions for The Grossery Gang.

    Video Games 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

Parodies:

    Fan Works 
  • The first paragraph of Super Paper Mario X starts with a "Creator of" example, like a trailer for a movie, but a Record Needle Scratch occurs halfway through, with the author assuring that "this is not a movie."

    Films — Animation 
  • Parodied by the 2007 Spanish-Italian animated film Donkey Xote. The film had a lot of similarities with Shrek, bordering on plagiarism. Its creators lampshaded this, promoting the film as "From the producers who saw Shrek".

    Films — Live-Action 

    Live-Action TV 

    Web Animation 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • Futurama
    • The episode "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" parodies this by having its opening caption read "From the Network that Brought You The Simpsons." (They could have made a big deal out of Matt Groening's name being on the cover of both shows, but they offer their then-shared home on Fox as the key similarity instead.)
    • "A Head in the Polls" has "From the Makers of Futurama".
  • Parodied in Family Guy, in an unaired cutaway gag from season 9, "Road to the North Pole".
    Stewie: [to Brian] You tried to trick me! Like those commercials for upcoming movies.
    [cut to Stewie watching TV in the living room]
    Announcer: This summer, from the guys who brought you Superbad comes a hilarious new comedy.
    Stewie: Uh, I hate when they do that. Which guy? You know it could be the writers or the guys in the wardrobe department, they don't specify.
    [Stewie changes the channel]
    Announcer: From the studio that brought you Wedding Crashers.
    Stewie: Uh, who cares? It's sure a broad association.
    [Stewie changes the channel]
    Announcer: From the species that brought you Talladega Nights.
    Stewie: Oh what, humans? Who else is making movies?
    Announcer: From the same molecular elements that brought you Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
    Stewie: What?
    Announcer: ...and air!
    Stewie: Fuck off!
  • Parodied in the "Uncle Grandpa Babies" segment with "From the network that brought you Adventure Time and Steven Universe."
  • Robot Chicken: A sketch from "Things Look Bad for the Streepster" features a trailer for The Smashing Games, which says it's "From the studio that brought you Mario Is Missing! and Donkey Kong Hockey.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Dr. Havoc's Diary trailer

"From the guys who brought you The Most Popular Girls in School".

How well does it match the trope?

5 (3 votes)

Example of:

Main / AdvertisingByAssociation

Media sources:

Report